Nearly 1,000 Coast students tested positive for COVID last week. Here’s the data.
As many as 905 Coast students tested positive for COVID-19 last week, according to the state health department’s latest data on cases and quarantines at schools.
The Sun Herald used the state’s weekly report on COVID-19 cases and quarantine numbers at schools to calculate the total figures for Hancock, Harrison and Jackson counties.
Across the three counties, 3,178 students and 90 staff were in quarantine.
Between 165 and 406 staff had tested positive for COVID-19.
Among schools that reported in Harrison County, the only traditional public school that reported no student cases was West Harrison Middle School, where students are learning from home because the building wasn’t ready to open for the first day of school.
When the number of positive cases is five or less, the department lists the figure as “1-5” to protect individual privacy. We used that information to calculate lower- and upper-end possibilities for the number of COVID-positive students and staff in each county.
Positive cases among students ranged from 812 to 905.
The health department defines an “outbreak” as three or more cases in the same group setting, like a classroom or sports team. A school can have multiple cases but no outbreaks if the cases are spread across different groups.
Here’s what we learned for each county.
Hancock County
- Students testing positive: 128-132
- Staff testing positive: 28-36
- Number of new outbreaks: 8
- Staff in quarantine: 10
- Students in quarantine: 281
East Hancock Elementary, Hancock North Central Elementary, South Hancock Elementary and West Hancock Elementary were not included in the report. East Hancock and South Hancock are both closed due to COVID-19 outbreaks.
Hancock High, which is also closed, reported the highest number of COVID-19 cases among students with 38. Hancock Middle School followed with 36.
Hancock Middle and Waveland both reported 10 staff testing positive.
Hancock Middle had the largest number of students in quarantine, with 109.
Harrison County
- Students testing positive: 456-506
- Staff testing positive: 88-210
- Number of new outbreaks: 13
- Staff in quarantine: 65
- Students in quarantine: 2,605
Only one traditional public school in all of Harrison County reported no COVID-19 positive students last week. That school was West Harrison Middle School, where students are learning from home because the building wasn’t ready in time for the start of the year.
The largest number of student cases was reported at Bayou View Middle School, with 42 of roughly 900 students testing positive last week. At West Wortham Elementary and Middle School, 34 students tested positive.
Woolmarket Elementary had the largest number of staff test positive, with 16. The school’s website says it has 59 faculty.
Bayou View Elementary School had the largest number of students in quarantine, with 304, about half the school’s total student body of 700. followed by West Wortham Elemnetary and Middle School, with 210 of 1,270 students quarantined.
Jackson County
The largest number of positive cases among students last week was reported at Ocean Springs High School, with 35 cases among about 1,900 students. St. Martin High School reported reported 18 cases among about 1,250 students. Neither school reported any students in quarantine.
The largest number of students in quarantine was 85, at Pascagoula High School, out of about 1,100 students. Gautier High School had 57 of about 900 students in quarantine.
Pascagoula High also had by far the largest number of staff test positive for COVID-19, with 20.
Although at least 79 and as many as 99 Jackson County School District students tested positive for COVID-19 last week, no students were quarantined. Nor were any staff. Last year, close contacts of people who tested positive for COVID-19 were not required to quarantine in the district.
The health department recommends all unvaccinated close contacts of someone who tests positive quarantine. But if two students were both wearing masks, the exposed student isn’t considered a close contact.
Jackson County is one of two Coast districts that does not mandate masks. Superintendent Dr. John Strycker estimated after the first day of school that about 5 to 35% of students were wearing masks, depending on the attendance center.
